Slow LAN fast wireless

I have a PC wired via ethernet to a Huwawei 520s router which in turn is on a telephone landline.. I also have a laptop connected wirelessly to the same network. There are no other machines on the network.

The laptop consistently downloads at a tolerable 6Mbps.

During the daytime the PC also downloads at 6Mbps but in the evenings the PC drops to 1 or 2 Mbps.

I understand that the evening speed may be lower because of traffic but why does the laptop (wireless) not suffer the drop in speed seen on the PC?

I am using the My Broadband Speed tester on both machines and they are situated within a few feet of each other,.

Any suggestions please?

Thanks for reading.

Spyware, Malware etc???

Some prog. running in stealth mode???


Dax

Are you sure your laptop is connecting to your router and not an unsecured one nearby? It is a possibility.

Also possible is that the speed tester you are using is unreliable. It is Ookla based, and that focusses on the peak speed attained during the test. The buffering in your system can cause this to happen, particularly if you have Kaspersky or Avira Internet Security. I just ran that test and it gave me 36,752kbps. I'm connected at 6576kbps!

Try the thinkbroadband speed test on both and see what that gives. Also note the IP address it detects on each.

Hi Roberto,

Thanks for your reply.

I'.m in Stockport too.

I tried Think Broadband on my PC and it came up with 1435Kbps which fits with the My Broadband results. It showed the correct ISP.

I cannot try the laptop as it does not have Java on it at the moment.

I have checked that both machines are on my own network.

Cheers.

In reply to a post by bruckshaw:

I cannot try the laptop as it does not have Java on it at the moment.

"You can also try our Flash-based broadband speed test."

This morning I have 5.72 on the PC and 5.74 on the laptop using the flash-based tester. Both connected to the same ISP address.

I will repeat this tonight.

I could try wiring the laptop via ethernet to see if the cable is OK? But why would that only be defective in the evening?

At the moment I can't think of an explanation. It's really wierd if the wireless always keeps up.

I don't think it will be the ethernet cable, but is is worth unplugging it at both ends then reconnecting it.

Are both in use most of the time, or is one of them just in the evening? Just wondering if the ethernet gives up if the wireless is in use. It shouldn't, but!

Thinks ... if the wireless is streaming video or TV catchup, or heavy P2P then that sort of thing could be getting priority and slow the other machine, independent of how it is connected. P2P in particular can swamp the upload so the PC downloading isn't able to give the ACKs.

Similarly if you have P2P running on the PC, even if you aren't downloading yourself, someone else may be uploading from it. That could have the same effect but leave the wireless from the router happy.

Bob,

Many thanks for your input but none of the scenarios you suggest really describes the usage of my machines and I have already tried reversing the ethernet cable. So far today I am still rattling along at >5M on the PC.